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On This Day (USA) - 31 October



Planet of Giants premiered on BBC One in 1964 at 5:13pm GMT, watched by 8.40 million viewers.

An accident in flight leads to the TARDIS and the travellers being miniaturised. Now only an inch high, the Doctor, Barbara, Ian and Susan explore an English country garden.


Welcome to Torchwood premiered on BBC Three in 2006 at 7:45pm GMT

A behind-the-scenes look at the new sci-fi series with John Barrowman.


The Zygon Invasion premiered on BBC One in 2015 at 8:17pm GMT, watched by 5.76 million viewers.

Osgood is kidnapped by a rogue gang of shapeshifting Zygons, who have been living on Earth while quietly plotting their evil takeover. But the Doctor is having none of that, leading Clara and Unit on a race around the world to save Osgood and quash the alien uprising.


The Zygon Invasion premiered on BBC America in 2015 at 9:00pm EDT, watched by 0.59 million viewers.

Part 1. The Zygons, a race of shapeshifting aliens, have been living in secret amongst us on Earth, unseen until now! When Osgood is kidnapped by a gang of Zygons, the Doctor, Clara and UNIT must scatter across the world in a bid to set her free.


The Halloween Apocalypse: Flux: Chapter One premiered on BBC One in 2021 at 6:26pm GMT, watched by 5.81 million viewers.

 Birthdays
Justin Chatwin will be 42 - credited as Grant in The Return of Doctor Mysterio

Justin Chatwin is a Canadian actor best known for playing Tom Cruise's son in War of the Worlds.

He had starring roles in The Invisible and Dragonball: Evolution, and supporting roles in Taking Lives, SuperBabies: Baby Geniuses 2, and the Canadian film Funkytown. 

He is also a prolific TV actor, well known for his work on Shameless, a Showtime dramedy, for four seasons. Prior to that, he had guest appearances on several television shows including Taken,Lost, and Orphan Black.

In 2016, Chatwin starred in the CBS summer mystery series American Gothic.


Paul Lee will be 53 - credited as Self in Missing In Action(Factual)

Author and Doctor Who fan


Craig Kelly will be 54 - credited as Joe in Scream of the Shalka(Misc)

Craig Kelly is an English actor and voice-over artist. He is best known for his roles as Vince Tyler in the Channel 4 television series Queer as Folk and as Luke Strong in Coronation Street.

Kelly was born on 31 October 1970 in Lytham St Annes near Blackpool, Lancashire. He is the brother of actor Dean Lennox Kelly. Kelly has a keen interest in Kickboxing, in which he has a black belt. He has been training in the sport for 10 years, as of 2009.

Kelly moved to London and attended the Drama Centre from 1989 to 1992, where he studied the Stanislavski School of method acting alongside John Simm and Joe Duttine.

Graduating in 1992, Kelly played a minor speaking role in Titanic as Assistant Wireless Operator, Harold Bride and also as Russell Muir in the film When Saturday Comes.

Kelly is best known for his role as Vince Tyler in Queer as Folk. He also appeared in Casualty as Daniel Perryman between 1995 and 1996. A very brief role was as the Mercedes-Benz driver in the Rabbit In Your Headlights video, who utters the line "Nice coat, mate" before speeding off. In the 1998 BBC series of The Children of the New Forest, Craig played Abel Courbould, the villainous puritan preacher. Craig also starred opposite Amanda Holden in the ITV series The Grimleys as Mr Treblecock, the school lothario. He played the young father of Alison Mundy in a second series episode of Afterlife in 2006.

In 2003, Kelly featured in the webcast Doctor Who adventure The Scream of the Shalka. He later guest-starred in the third series of the BBC's Waking the Dead, in which he played a cross-dresser who is released from prison on appeal for murdering his father.

In November 2008, Kelly landed the role of the new underworld factory boss, Luke Strong, in ITV's Coronation Street. His character first appeared on 20 February 2009 and Kelly departed in the episode that aired on 19 October 2009.

On 25 August 2009, it was announced that he would take part in Series 7 of BBC One's Strictly Come Dancing, partnering Flavia Cacace. Kelly was the 8th Celebrity eliminated from the competition on 7 November 2009 in a special show from Blackpool Tower Ballroom.

Kelly starred alongside his brother in the ITV1 drama Collision, which aired over five consecutive nights in November 2009.

He played Cristian O'Neil in The Young Americans, with Harvey Keitel (1993). Kelly was also in James Cameron's 1997 film Titanic and played the part of radio operator Harold Sydney Bride. Also he appeared in Spiceworld with a minor speaking role where he speaks to Geri (Ginger Spice). Kelly had a small role in the 1999 sci-fi film Wing Commander playing Falk, the ship's radar man.

Kelly is a prolific voiceover artist, his vocal talents heard on many adverts, BBC idents and more recently on Channel 4 idents. As of April 2008 he is a voiceover for Channel 4's 4OD on-demand service and the ITV catchup service. He has also narrated for various television programmes, including Channel 4's Shipwrecked: Battle of the Islands (2006–2009), E4's Shipwrecked: The Island 2011 (2011) and ITV's Freddie Mercury: A Kind of Magic documentary. He can also be credited for his narration on Sally Morgan's Star Psychic Show, as well as series 6 of The Real Hustle on BBC Three (a show his brother narrated for two series). He is currently the station voice for Manchester's Key 103. He also voices a 2014 advert for Nutella. He has voiced Shipping Wars UK on Channel 4 since 2015.

Kelly and his wife Camilla married in Formentera in the Balearic Islands in the summer of 2009. The couple live in Kensal Green, London. He is the brother of Dean Lennox Kelly.

Biography from the wikipedia article, licensed under CC-BY-SA


Talfryn Thomas (died 1982 aged 60) would be 102 - 2 credits, including Dave in The Green Death

Talfryn Thomas was a British character actor, best known for supporting roles on British television in the 1970s.

Talfryn Thomas was born in Swansea.

He excelled at playing quirky and sometimes seedy Welshmen. His distinctive appearance was enhanced by his protruding front teeth, which earned him the nickname 'Talf The Teef'. Thomas was a regular on Ken Dodd's BBC radio comedy show and The Ken Dodd Laughter Show, with Rita Webb and Pat Ashton; but he is probably best remembered (and most criticized) for his role as Private Cheeseman, a member of the Home Guard in later episodes of Dad's Army. In 1975 he featured in several episodes of the first series of the cult BBC TV series Survivors as Tom Price. He also appeared with Jon Pertwee in the Doctor Who serials Spearhead from SpaceThe Green Death and with Roger Moore in The Saint.

Biography from the Wikipedia article, licensed under CC-BY-SA


Daphne Oxenford (died 2012 aged 93) would be 105 - 2 credits, including Archivist in Dragonfire

Daphne Margaret du Grivel Oxenford was an English actress known for her television and radio work.

Early life and early career

She first appeared on stage at the age of thirteen and trained at the Embassy School of Acting in Swiss Cottage, London. She was briefly employed by a bank before working in censorship during the war while performing in revues in her spare time. At the end of the war she toured with ENSA before returning to revues in London. After her marriage she moved to Manchester and appeared regularly at the Library Theatre and the Royal Exchange Theatre as well as in the West End. In 1947 she successfully auditioned for Joyce Grenfell, who became a close friend and godmother to Oxenford's daughter.

Radio and television

Her best-known role was the voice for BBC radio's Listen with Mother from 1950 to 1971; she was also a reader on the newspaper review programme What the Papers Say for over thirty years. One of the original cast members of Coronation Street, she played Esther Hayes from 1960 to 1963, 1971 and 1972. She played Mrs. Patterson' the owner of the village shop' in the popular sitcom To the Manor Born. In the seventies and early eighties she was part of Listen to Les The Les Dawson Radio Show on BBC Radio 2, and performed in The Clitheroe Kid radio comedy series from time to time. She played Chrissy's mother in three episodes of Man About the House- Series 4 - Episode 5 (1973–76).

Other TV credits include: The Sweeney, The Duchess of Duke Street, Juliet Bravo, The Children of Green Knowe, Doctor Who (in the serial Dragonfire and The Unicorn and the Wasp) and Hetty Wainthropp Investigates. In 2006, guest-starred in the audio drama Sapphire and Steel: Cruel Immortality. She appeared in three episodes of Midsomer Murders (2004–2008) as Muriel, Cully's grandmother. Her film credits include All Creatures Great and Small (1975). Her voice was used for a 'Listen With Mother' programme in 1977 for the sitcom Rising Damp.

Personal life

Oxenford was married to David Marshall from 1951 until his death in February 2003. They had two daughters.

Biography from the wikipedia article, licensed under CC-BY-SA


 Deaths
Byrd Wilkins (died 2015 aged 50) - credited as The Preacher in A Town Called Mercy

William Byrd Wilkins is from Louisburg, North Carolina, and graduated from The New School in New York in 2002. He is a teaching artist at AIR.

The actor only occasionally takes on roles, such as a bouncer in Overnight Delivery in 1998 and as a crack dealer in Running Scared in 2006. More recently he appeared in The U as Chief Moses Newsome, and in 360 as a social worker.

He played The Preacher in the 2012 Doctor Who story A Town Called Mercy


Brian Cobby (died 2012 aged 83) - credited as The Oroog in The Creed of the Kromon(BF)

Brian Cobby was an English actor who, between 1985 and 2007  was the voice of the British speaking clock.

Cobby attended the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art. During the 1950s, he acted in repertory theatre and toured with productions of Ladies for Hire,Intimate Relations, Peter Pan, Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2 and Macbeth.

He appeared, in the film version of Evita (1996), standing next to Madonna in the balcony scene. In 2004, he guest-starred in the Doctor Who audio drama The Creed of the Kromon.

In December 1984 Cobby was working as an assistant supervisor at a telephone exchange in Withdean, Brighton. He entered a competition to become the new voice of the British Telecom speaking clock.  He was the only male out of twelve finalists. Cobby won the competition and became the first male voice of the clock.

 

 



Howard Attfield (died 2007 aged 60) - 3 credits, including Geoff Noble in The Runaway Bride

Howard Attfield played Geoff Noble in the 2006 Christmas special The Runaway Bride. 

He was signed to reprise the role during Series 4, but died early in production of the season after filming several scenes for Partners in Crime.

His completed scenes were refilmed with Bernard Cribbins playing a different character, Wilfred Mott. The footage was later included on the DVD release of Series 4. A line of dialogue referencing Geoff Noble in DW: The End of Time, Part Two was included as a tribute to Attfield.

Other appearances include Brothers of the Head, Fooling Hitler, Rosemary & Thyme, ChuckleVision, Lexx, One Foot in the Grave, Lighthouse, Ever After: A Cinderella Story, The Darling Buds of May, Rumpole of the Bailey, Leon the Pig Farmer, Terry on the Fence, Minder, The Optimist, Great Expectations, Cover, Cream in My Coffee


Mary Wimbush (died 2005 aged 81) - credited as Aunt Lavinia in A Girl's Best Friend(K9&Co)

Mary Wimbush  was an English actress, whose career spanned sixty years from the 1940s to the 2000s. Active acrossfilmtelevisiontheatre and radio, she was perhaps best known for her role as the character of Julia Pargetter in BBC Radio 4's popular soap opera The Archers, a part she played from 1992 until her death.

Wimbush's father was a schoolmaster and her mother had trained at RADA, but did not pursue a stage career. Wimbush was educated at the Berkhamsted School for Girls and at St Agnes & St Michael's, an Anglican convent in East Grinstead. She trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama, before joining Amersham rep.

She first acted on radio for the BBC in 1945, preferring the medium as it gave her more time to look after her young family, and it continued to be the medium in which she was the most active throughout her career. She played roles in hundreds of series, serials and plays, including various Shakespeare productions; Mrs Dale's DiaryThe Governor's Consort (a part written especially for her by Peter Tinniswood), The Mystery of Edwin Drood and The Horse's Mouth. For the latter two productions she won Best Actress at the 1991 Sony Awards, the radio equivalent of the Oscars. In 2004 she played Eurycleia in BBC Radio 4's acclaimed dramatisation of The Odyssey.

In The Archers in 1951 her character Jane Maxwell was the original stumbling block to the engagement of Phil Archer and his future (first) wife Grace. In 1965 she played schoolteacher Elsie Catcher, and was a regular on the programme for two years until the character retired. In 1969 she returned for a time as Lady Isabel Lander and she finally came back in 1992 as Julia Pargetter.

In 1959 she had acted in a radio play opposite Richard Attenborough. When making his first film as a director, 1969's Oh! What a Lovely War, he remembered her performance and cast her as the mother of the Smith family, her first film role, which won her a nomination as Best Supporting Actress at the British Academy Film Awards. She later appeared in two other films, Fragment of Fear (1970) and Vampire Circus (1972).

On television, she appeared in a variety of high-profile series in supporting roles. She played Prudie Paynter in the BBC's adaptations of the Poldark novels in the 1970s, and Zasulich in 1974's Fall of Eagles. In the 1980s she appeared in the Doctor Who spin-off K-9 and Company and D.H. Lawrence adaptation Sons and Lovers (both 1981), and in the early 1990s found fame as Aunt Agatha in three series of Jeeves and Wooster, with Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie. In 1993 she co-starred in the dark children's fantasy serial Century Falls, an early work by acclaimed scriptwriter Russell T. Davies. She also had guest appearances in episodes of a variety of programmes during her career, from Z-Carsand All Creatures Great and Small in the 1970s to Midsomer MurdersHeartbeat and Doctors in the 2000s. Her final screen appearance was in a two-part episode of the BBC One medical drama Casualty in September 2004.

As with television and film, she was not particularly active in the theatre until later in her career. Prominent roles included Miss Mackay in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester (1971) and Rebecca Nurse in Arthur Miller's The Crucible. Her final stage appearance came at the age of 78, in Song of the Western Men at the Minerva Theatre in Chichester.

Wimbush had one son (from her 1946 marriage to the actor Howard Marion-Crawford), and later two grandchildren through him. From 1958 she was the lover of the poet and playwright Louis MacNeice, until his death in 1963.

She died on the evening of 31 October 2005, at the Mailbox studios of BBC Birmingham, shortly after completing work on a recording session for The Archers.

Biography from the Wikipedia article, licensed under CC-BY-SA